High population densities in schools, combined with the physical and perceptual limitations of young children, make emergency evacuation a critical yet often underestimated risk. Although seismic and safety standards have improved school construction, most existing buildings remain vulnerable, and conventional research—centered on adult behaviour or new infrastructure—offers little guidance for improving safety in already-built schools. This project, therefore, establishes a scientific system to protect children through behavioral, managerial, and design strategies that require minimal structural modification.
By capturing movement, hesitation, and following behaviour in real drills, the project created one of the most detailed behavioral datasets for young evacuees. These empirical findings were then incorporated into a multi-agent simulation model that incorporates both decision-making logic and a dynamic health attribute, allowing the model to account for physiological deterioration (e.g., smoke exposure) alongside psychological stress and spatial constraints. This integration represents a significant methodological advance, as previous evacuation models have typically overlooked the health dimension of children under hazardous stress.
The ABM results demonstrate that evacuation outcomes depend not only on building geometry or supervision level, but also on their interactions with behavioral and health variables. Symmetrical exits or excessive adult guidance can intensify congestion, whereas staggered exits, distributed guidance, and adaptive signage significantly reduce clearance time and health risk. The model’s reliability assessment framework quantitatively links environmental conditions to both physical safety and well-being, enabling more realistic risk evaluation than conventional flow-based models.
Scientifically, the project pioneers a cross-disciplinary method that merges psychological theory, empirical evidence, and computational reliability analysis into a single predictive platform. It transforms a qualitative understanding of child behavior into measurable indicators usable for simulation, training assessment, and safety code revision. Practically, it provides low-cost, adaptable strategies—optimizing guide placement, signage design, and evacuation sequencing—that can be implemented immediately in existing schools without extensive reconstruction.
This work reframes children’s evacuation safety as a rigorous domain of disaster science, emphasizing evidence-driven planning over prescriptive drills. By integrating health-sensitive behavioral modelling with real-world observation, it contributes to IRDR’s mission of promoting scientifically grounded, socially inclusive risk reduction and offers a scalable framework for protecting the most vulnerable population during emergencies.
Contact and Bio of Dr. Homa Bahmani:
Dr. Homa Bahmani is a Senior Research Fellow (Associate Research Professor) at the College of Environment and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, and a fixed researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Geological Disaster Prevention and Geological Environmental Protection, Chengdu, China. Her research focuses on disaster recovery management, disaster resilience, evacuation behavior modeling, and resilient community systems, bridging human behavior, spatial design, and risk science.
She leads several funded projects on children's evacuation safety, post-disaster recovery, and resilience assessment. Dr. Bahmani has authored two Springer Nature books and over fifteen peer-reviewed papers. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Nature series, "Resilient and Friendly Living Environments," and is an editorial board member of "Urbanization, Sustainability and Society" (Emerald). A recipient of the IRDR Young Scientist Award (2023), Dr. Bahmani actively contributes to interdisciplinary collaboration across disaster risk reduction, human mobility, and sustainable infrastructure design.
Contact: homabahmani@hust.edu.cn
Learn More:
Students' evacuation behavior during an emergency at schools.pdf
Comutational analysis of evacuation processes in primary schools.pdf
A video-based analysis on evacuees’ speed and density.pdf
ABM integrating child development behaviour and health dynamics.pdf
